The Name of the Rose

Thank you for supporting Foundry. Releasing a new novel is as harrowing as it is exciting—the long anticipated fruition of years of work—and I’m lucky to have readers like you welcoming the book with so much enthusiasm.

Wisereads selected Foundry as their book-of-the-week and ran an exclusive excerpt. Compelling Science Fiction and From the Future published thoughtful, generous reviews. Sentiers, Transfer Orbit, Great Reads by John Biggs, and Exponential View featured it. A subscriber to this humble newsletter opened a new bookstore in Middleburg, Virginia—amazing!—and I have it on good authority that they’re stocking Foundry. Kathy Varol expanded on a pivotal analogy from the novel on the Unfolding podcast. Ben Werdmuller wrote about Foundry in an essay about professional growth that made me think about how it’s never too late to take on a new creative challenge—experiences that you might imagine to be unrelated become key ingredients for the next thing you make, the next path you take. Your Amazon reviews are a goldmine of insightful takes on the story—please keep posting them, it makes a big difference. Oh, and I did an impromptu AMA over on Reddit—feel free to post questions and I’ll jump back in and answer them.

I sold out my entire inventory of signed hardcovers (!), but a new batch arrived from the printer today. Order one here while they last (use this link instead if you’re outside the US).

Stay weird. Stay cool. Stay curious. You are the people I write for.

And now, a book I love that you might too:

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco follows two medieval monks trying to solve a series of brutal murders revolving around a forbidden book stolen from a labyrinthine library in a monastery hidden deep in the Italian alps. Steeped in the very specific politics, culture, and thinking of its time, the novel transports you to a foreign era whose idiosyncrasies shed fresh light on our own. Eco likes to say that detective stories are the most philosophical of plot archetypes because their resolution reveals the underlying structure of a mysterious series of events—and this detective story contains at least as many philosophical revelations as plot twists.

People saying nice things about Foundry:

• “A precision engineered labyrinth of spies and semiconductors.”
  -Hannu Rajaniemi, author of The Quantum Thief

• “This book will devour your free time. It will ruin your sleep. It will infiltrate your mind. It will steal your heart. Buy it. Read it. You can thank me later.”
  -David Cohen, founder at Techstars

• “Eliot Peper’s genius? Making the unbelievable feel like it’s just around the corner. If you weren’t a Peper fan already, you will be after this read. Dive in, but don’t expect to come up for air anytime soon.”
  -Ozan Varol, author of Awaken Your Genius

• “If whip-smart, fast-moving, spy-vs.-spy stories are your thing, then this is the novel for you.”
  -SF Signal

• “Frighteningly prescient. I read it in less than 48 hours—just had to know what would happen next.”
  -Rebecca Hiscott, managing editor at Stripe Press

• “The most important resource isn’t gold, oil, or rice. Semiconductors control the world, and Peper’s new thriller explores the implications.”
  -Chris Yeh, co-author of Blitzscaling

• “Eliot’s novels are first-rate at synthesizing complex science, technology, and geopolitics in action-packed plots. Highly recommend!”
  -Danny Crichton, editor-in-chief at Lux Capital

• “Clever, prescient, and stylish, Foundry is a fascinating examination of modern power wrapped in a propulsive, page-turning story.”
  -Mario Gabriele, The Generalist

• “How can you not buy this book immediately?”
  -Rodolfo Rosini, entrepreneur-in-residence at Conception X

• “Rooted in real geopolitical dilemmas, Foundry explores the intersection of espionage and tech.”
  -Scott Bade, senior analyst at Eurasia Group

• “A spy adventure that takes unexpected turns and sticks a landing that had me cheering. Truly a lot of fun—I inhaled it in one sitting.”
  -Ben Werdmuller, The 19th

• “Reading Peper novels could be described as future-prepping—glimpsing the world that hasn’t happened yet. Foundry is another look around the corner. The timing is eerily good.”
  -David Lang, executive director at the Experiment Foundation

• “A spy thriller about semiconductors; an acid trip; a lightning rumination on how thoroughly tech shapes the world around us. I absolutely love it.”
  -Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, author of The Salvage Crew

• “A carefully crafted trap designed to shatter your assumptions.”
  –Wisereads

Thanks for reading. We all find our next favorite book because someone we trust recommends it. So when you fall in love with a story, tell your friends. Culture is a collective project in which we all have a stake and a voice.

Best, Eliot

Eliot Peper is the author of Foundry, Reap3r, Veil, Breach, Borderless, Bandwidth, Neon Fever Dream, Cumulus, Exit Strategy, Power Play, and Version 1.0. He also consults on special projects.